The post-merger integration of Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications Inc. is running six to nine months ahead of schedule, said Gary Forsee, president and chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel Corp., the name of the merged company.

“We are a full six to nine months ahead in integration versus where I thought we would be,” said Forsee, speaking to a group of investors at a Citigroup conference in Arizona broadcast over the Internet.

In addition, Forsee noted that Sprint now expects about $14.5 billion worth of synergies versus the $12 billion worth of synergies the company had originally projected when the companies announced the merger in December of 2004. Forsee said the company is on track to spin off local phone service business sometime this year.

Forsee’s comments today reiterate what he has been saying for the past six months about the $35 billion merger – that it’s running ahead of schedule and stands to provide more synergies than porginally expected

Forsee said he expected new products from Sprint’s co-venture with the Comcast, Advance/Newhouse Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications to be available by mid-2006 with more services being rolled out in 2007.

The likely product will be a wireless device “enabled with the same content” as the television, said Forsee.